TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Call of Duty Mobile surpasses 100 million downloads; Medal acquires Megacool; and Atari system architect leaves following payment dispute.

Call of Duty Mobile surpasses 100 million downloads

Call of Duty Mobile, published by Activision and developed by Tencent’s Timi Studio, has become the fastest selling mobile game launch of all time with 102.2 million downloads worldwide in its first week, according to data released by Sensor Tower. The title has generated a total of USD$17.7m (£14.5m) thus far, with a 53:47 ratio between spending on iOS and Android. The US was the title’s most lucrative market in its first week in terms of both downloads and spending, with 17.3 million downloads (16.9% of total) and USD$7.6m (£6.2m), which equates to 43.1% of player spending. In terms of popularity, India and Brazil were the game’s next most prominent markets, with download figures of 13.7 million (13.4%) and 7.1 million (7%) respectively.

Call of Duty Mobile has surpassed rival mobile shooters PUBG Mobile and Fortnite in terms of player spending during week one. Epic Games’ title generated only USD$2.3m (£1.9m) in its first week in beta, with the caveat that it was only available on iOS during this period. PUBG Mobile took in under USD$600,000 (£490,000) in the first week of monetisation, which was brought in two months after launch.

Medal acquires Megacool

PC game clip-sharing platform Medal has acquired Megacool, a similar service focusing on mobile titles, for an undisclosed sum. The Medal.tv platform was launched in 2017 and has since gone on to raise USD$12.2m (£10m) in seed and Series A funding, while Megacool, launched in 2015, has previously raised USD$1.6m (£1.3m).

A statement on Megacool’s website reads “Going forward we will double down on further improving our performance and reliability to allow more mid- to hard-core games to thrive on our platform. We also want to emphasize that data will be kept separate and remain as private as ever, while we are continuing to expand our enterprise offering. We are grateful for all the support you’ve shown us on our mega cool journey and hope you’ll be part of this exciting next chapter with Medal.”

Atari system architect leaves following payment dispute

Rob Wyatt, the leading system architect for Atari’s upcoming VCS retro console, has left the project over an apparent payment dispute. Wyatt, who was a founding member of the team that developed the original Xbox console, alleges that Atari has not paid his Tin Giant design consultancy for six months. Tin Giant’s role in the project will now reportedly be taken over by SurfaceInk.

Speaking to The Register, Wyatt said, “As a small company, we have been lucky to survive this long. I was hoping to see the project through to the end and that it wouldn’t come to this, but I have little choice other than to pursue other opportunities.”

In response, an Atari spokesperson said, “It is Atari’s policy not to comment on an isolated matter under dispute, only to say that the Atari VCS project has always been a team effort and its success has never been and will never be dependent on any single individual or partner.”